The comedian explains why he has helped a terminally ill teenager raise more
than £2.5 million for charity with the thumbsupforstephen campaign

It’s easy to be cynical about comedians who raise money for charity in a very public way. Comic Relief is the obvious example of the fundraiser that not only trades on celebrity, it augments it in the process. Yet even those who nurse the suspicion that household names who love to do good are often just advancing their own cause will surely have been given ample pause this week by the extraordinary boost that the fundraising campaign of terminally ill teenager Stephen Sutton has received at the hands of the affable Mancunian comic Jason Manford.

With the lightest of touches, Manford achieved the greatest of results. There was no swank, no ceremony, no “big I am” plea on telly, not even a joke cracked.

The 32-year-old stand-up noticed that the incredibly bright, life-affirming 19-year-old from Burntwood, Staffordshire, who he had met several times when organising and hosting the annual Teenage Cancer Trust comedy galas at the Royal Albert Hall, had posted a farewell on Facebook – “It’s a final thumbs up from me”. Moved by what he read, Manford directed his army of followers on Twitter and Facebook to help make Sutton’s desire to reach £1m raised for the trust a reality. And he hit on a perfect means of spreading the message, creating an instant “thumbsupforstephen” campaign that encouraged people to share pictures of themselves raising their thumbs in the cancer patient’s honour.

As the media around the world has been swift to report, the pay-off has been record-breaking in its speed and scale for the fundraising site JustGiving.com: more than £2m had been donated by the time I caught up with a plainly moved and delighted Manford yesterday. This morning the total had risen to more than £2.5m.

Although anxious not to be seen as blowing his own trumpet – or worse, trying to drum up trade – the comedian is clearly so inspired by Sutton’s heroic example that he’s willing to relive the whirlwind events of the past few days.

It was seeing Sutton’s poignant farewell posting on Tuesday that got his attention, he says. “I looked at his website, and saw some of the stuff he had written. It was so intelligent and profound. He had every right to be bitter and angry and he wasn’t. It put things in perspective. I’d spent the whole morning moaning. I couldn’t find the kids shoes, then I couldn’t find a parking space. I got stuck in traffic, got a flat tyre – had to spend an hour getting it changed. Then I read through what he had written and thought “None of these problems matter”.”

“I noticed that his challenge was to raise a million. I thought “I’ve got 700,000 people on my Facebook page. He only has to make another half a million. If everyone donates a pound, happy days.” That’s all I thought. But I watched it grow and then I thought “We can hit two million”. I remembered the ‘no make-up selfies' and thought “Let’s get a load of celebrities to start it off, doing a thumbs up for Stephen.” I got in touch by email with Chris O' Dowd and Steve Coogan and sent messages via other people to reach the likes of Paul Whitehouse. It really kicked off that first night.”

His voice is incredulous. “Within 24 hours, 90,000 people had used the hashtag “thumbsupforstephen” – it was amazing. I texted his dad to say “Has Stephen seen that it has hit a million?” He texted back to say “Cool”. Seven million people looked at the picture of that text – phenomenal.”

On Thursday, on learning that Sutton had rallied, he popped in to see him in Birmingham Children’s Hospital and spent a couple of hours with him. “He’s one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met,” he says simply. “To still be thinking, even on his death bed, “How could I help others?” – he is absolutely inspiring.” Manford decided to donate the profits from the next month of his bold new initiative of UK comedy club nights – manfordscomedyclub.com, aimed at encouraging audiences to enjoy the best of the stand-up circuit – to the cause – and a swiftly organised gig in Birmingham this Sunday evening sold out in four minutes.

Is he surprised by just how much compassion the campaign has tapped? “I think people are nice anyway,” he replies. “There are more nice people than horrible people.” Might some people out there be cynical about his motives, or question the publicity he’s getting? “I stopped asking people to donate on Thursday, because you don’t want to give it the full Geldof. You don’t want people going “All right mate, that’s enough”.” But if people paint him as an opportunist, he’s not bothered.

Three and a half years ago, he found himself at the centre of a media storm about his activities on social media for very different reasons. The father of three resigned as co-host of BBC One's The One Show in November 2010 after being revealed as having exchanged sexually explicit messages on Twitter with female fans. Is there an irony that this week his use of Twitter has done the power of good? He is sanguine about that episode. “You can have good days and bad days on social media, it’s a microcosm of society. I don’t think your whole life and personality can be summed up in one moment. Nice people do silly things sometimes. I am the same person I’ve always been. I’ve always done as much charity work as I can and I’ve always helped out people who are less fortunate than I am. I can’t help what the media decides to pick up on but I’m not a different person to the one I’ve been all my life.”

The reason comedians are so prone to getting stuck into good causes, he believes, is simple. “I think we can’t believe that someone will pay us money to tell jokes and mess about, so we feel guilty a lot of the time and every so often we think “I’d better do something good.” But I don’t think “I will do this nice thing because of what other people might think”. You’re never going to win some people over, whether you’ve donated money or helped to raise money for charity – those people are gone, let them go.” He pauses, and says it again. “There are many more nice people than horrible people out there. You’ve got to remember that.”